1 What is Sesame?

Sesame is a name resolver which returns, from a string
representing the designation of an astronomical object outside the
Solar System, the position of that object in the sky and a few other
details. It operates by querying the following databases:
Simbad, NED , and VizieR.

Sesame can be accessed:

by a form, where a
name of an astronomical source (or of a file containing names)
can be submitted;
the options are available as buttons and checkboxes.

where opt are output options detailed below, and
~SNVA indicate the possible choices of
databases as Simbad, NED,
VizieR, All the quoted databases,
and the ~ which indicates to ignore any cached
results. Without the A, the result of the first
positive answer is listed only.

This HTTP-GET access is available also as the sesame
script included in the cdsclient package
aimed at fast queries of the large survey from simple
command-line interfaces well adapted to linux/unix scripts.

where the results comes from NED (database option /NSV
queries first NED, the Simbad, then VizieR).
The elements are the type of object <otype>,
the main name <oname> and eventually other designations <alias>;
the J2000 position is given as a string <jpos> and its two components
<jradeg> and <jdedeg>, and contains also the errors in mas
<errRAmas> and <errDEmas>, and the origin of the position
in <erefPos>. The velocity is a structured text within a <Vel>
tag, composed of the value (<v>), its error (<e>),
quality (<q>) where A is the best, and its
reference (<r>).

In this format, the line starting by #= indicates the
resolver used; %C indicates the object type,
%J the J2000 position, %J.E the precision
and source of the position as en error ellipse. The proper
motion is introduced by %P with its error ellipse,
quality and reference.

The results about the star HIP 123 are expressed in XML
with the recent version of the XML schema. Several additional structured
parameters (from Simbad) are included:

the proper motion (<pm> tag) containing the proper
motion value (<v> in mas/yr), error (<e>), quality (<q>),
reference (<r>), and position angle (<pa> in degrees);
the components of the proper motion along RA (<pmRA>) and Dec (<pmDE>)
with their errors, expressed in mas/yr, are also returned;

the magnitudes include the <band> attribute specifying the
wavelength range (one of UBVRIJHK or ugriz filters;
the exact definition of the filters should however be checked in the
reference), and the corresponding magnitude value (<v>),
error (<e>), quality (<q>), and reference (<r>).